


Grimoire

by Nortya



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Workplace Relationship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-01
Updated: 2016-10-29
Packaged: 2018-08-18 20:48:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8175698
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nortya/pseuds/Nortya
Summary: A modern AU, where Zuko and Katara are writers for the show Grimoire, a supernatural thriller. Their rocky relationship takes a dramatic turn for the worse when Zuko goes on a manager's retreat and Katara makes a character based on her grumpy supervisor. No one could have predicted just how popular the scarred anti-hero would be...





	1. Prologue

It was late, too late. She knew that she shouldn't have been out at this hour, but that didn't help her any now. Instead she wrapped her pale blue sweatshirt more tightly around herself, trying to ward off the chilly autumn air. Cliché as it was, these early autumn nights always spooked her. There was nothing she wanted more than to be back home, safe, and with warm tea in her favorite mug.

What was that? She spun around wildly, peering through the dark trees. She swore that she had heard something. Still, nothing there. She chewed on her lip nervously as she returned her eyes to the path in front of her. For future reference: walking through the woods at night was a seriously _bad_ idea.

She hurried along now, trying to tell herself that this was the last time she would do something so boneheaded. Her brother had warned her of the danger lurking in these woods, but she hadn't listened. Well, the joke was on her now considering she had scared herself silly. The leaves crunched under her feet, louder now at her faster gait. There was the pond! She was nearly out of the woods!

She paused for a moment to catch her breath, and that's when she realized the leaves kept crunching behind her.

She whirled around; too late! The male figure charged at her and grabbed her around the waist. She screamed and tried to beat him off, but he only lost his grip for a moment. She fell to the marshy ground, fingers sinking into the mud at the edge of the pond. Her heart pounded in fear and she reached for her mother's necklace.

He was going to kill her. She knew this and there was no one there to protect her. She tried to crawl away from him, anywhere but his direction, but he crashed into her again. It was all she could do to keep her head above the surface of the pond.

She whispered a few short words before he shoved her head underwater. Luckily, it was just enough. A soft blue light began emanating from the pendant clutched in her hand. As the light grew, the figure reacted violently, pushing the girl deeper into the pond and he tried to scramble out of the water. Unfortunately for him, they were too far out. As the glow spread, it crawled up the water on the figure's arms and he howled in pain. Soon whole pond was glowing blue with an unearthly light, and the male figure started to disintegrate into wisps of ash.

The young woman broke the surface of the pond, taking deep breath after deep breath. She didn't gasp or choke thanks to years of competitive swimming. Instead she continued floating in the water just allowing her body come to rest after the struggle. She had been in situations like this before thanks to her brother's work, but this was the first time she had defeated one of them, a demon, on her own.

She stood, only a little shaky, and waded out from the pond to the muddy shore. She sat down for a moment, brushing her wet hair out of her face, then kissed her mother's necklace. It should have been obvious before, but the cross was more than just decoration when dealing with demons: it was a weapon. Well, it would help her again. She resolved right there, right then, that she would no longer just be a victim. She stood up, new confidence to her stance and turned to walk home.

When she arrived her brother leapt from the couch, "Vickie! Where have you been? We've been worried sick about you! Don't you know there have been reports of…"

"A demon? Yeah, I know," Vickie said with a little smile, "We met. But Mark… I was thinking. We always run into trouble and I'm done being the victim. I want fight too."

Mark hesitated, then nodded. "It would be good to know how to protect yourself. We've talked about that for ages." He didn't know if it was just part of being popular or part of being in their family that made her a demon magnet, but she needed to know some self-defense.

Vickie shook her head, "No, I want to _fight_ them. I've been their punching bag for long enough! It's time I joined you. I want to take the fight to them. This evening… It wasn't an accident. I didn't know the demon was stalking me, but as soon as I heard it, I knew I had to be the one to kill it. I did and it was the best thing I've ever done. Mark, I'm tired of being your kid sister; I ready to be your partner."

And that's when the credits began rolling.

Katara smiled and stretched in deep satisfaction. That scene was hers. Of course she wasn't the blonde, the demon, and definitely not the male lead, she wasn't the director, but she was the writer, no _author_ , of it. She beamed with pride. The show may have been a huge collaboration with hundreds of people doing dozens of different things, but that little piece of it? That was hers. She had been the one to take Vickie from bubble-headed Tits McGee to Victoria, demon killer and all-around badass. She had been tired of the 'cheerleader' trope where Vickie had nothing better to do but strut around in a swimsuit and get captured and it had been her idea to have Victoria lead the demon into the pond and kill him with some cleverly improvised holy water. Some called it "taking a level in badass," she called it making Vickie the character she should have been all along.

Katara took a swig of her brother's terrible beer in celebration. It had been a successful second-year internship, without question. The badassification of Vickie had been celebrated as a turning point in the show. She knew! She had read the fansites _extensively_ after she returned to school. Now of course that wasn't _really_ the case, instead their head writer at the time had let all of them experiment with the characters on an otherwise failing show, but she wasn't about to make that public knowledge. That freedom had let the once stagnant show blossom into the epic that it was now. Four seasons later and it was still going strong!

She once again pretended to accept the Emmy, even while knowing it was never going to happen. As much as she wanted credit, now a staff writer, she knew that it would go to the _current_ head writer, Zuko Sozin. And that inspired a long slug of PBR. It was terrible, but right now she just wanted, no, _needed_ , something alcoholic. Her head writer was what inspired this not-so-subtle night of binge drinking her way along memory lane. He was, in a word, a complete and total asshole. No, wait, that was four words… five words? Four words, she decided. She was a writer, she should know that. She blamed the half-empty bottle in her hand, and its five empty brothers on the table for that. No, she'd blame Zuko, it was probably his fault too and as she finished off beer number six that was sounding like a better and better idea.

The problem was that Zuko Sozin was an arrogant, pretentious, self-satisfied egomaniac. She had turned in her last script only to receive it back, dripping blood. Red ink, but close enough. And that wasn't the half of it! He had called her into his office, looked over the top of his glasses, and said "Is this _really_ the best you can do? I expect this from an intern, but not staff. I need a full rewrite, by Monday. Don't disappoint me again." She polished off bottle number six and lined it up to complete the top of her squat, little pyramid. She threw her hands in the air in celebration of her architectural achievement. Yep, being tipsy helped.

Somehow, Zuko Sozin had missed the memo that _she_ was a crucial, indispensable part of _Grimoire_. She was responsible for Victoria's character arc, she was responsible for "Mirror, Mirror," the highest rated episode of season six, and she was responsible for hands-down the best dialogue of season five, when Victoria killed her father. Okay, she hadn't been responsible for season four and Mark's death, but she was in college and that wasn't her fault. She would have killed off Mark if she wasn't busy finishing school.

Now, unfortunately, she'd have to see one Zuko Sozin again on Monday with a new script. That almost had her reaching for bottle number seven, but she stopped herself. She was happily plastered now; a seventh beer could easily become an eighth or a ninth, and she didn't want to completely lose Saturday to a hangover. She belched and that proved that six terrible beers were enough for one night.

Katara staggered towards her bedroom passing Sokka doing… whatever it was he was doing on the computer. He shouted loudly, slapped his hands to his face, and dragged his fingers down his cheeks while moaning in distress. Yep, gaming, not working as he had claimed three hours ago. She shut the door to his room, hoping she could get some rest.

When Katara reached her room, she kicked off her shoes and crawled into bed. Ugh… Monday was already _way_ too close. Still, there was always the possibility Zuko would drop dead from a heart attack before Monday morning. That put a small smile on her face as she passed out.


	2. Monday Mornings

Monday morning came way too soon.

Katara dragged herself to her cubicle at the ungodly hour of 9 AM: no doubt set by early bird Zuko Sozin. Well, it was 9:08, but close enough. As they said, creatives were rarely morning people and Katara agreed with that sentiment _strongly_. She rubbed a bit of sleep out of her eye and yawned, debating whether it was too soon for a coffee break.

Katara slumped in her chair and turned on her computer. She spun around a little as the ancient processor booted up. Zuko wanted an entire rewrite; how was she supposed to do that in a day? Sighing heavily,she opened up a new document and stared at the empty page… Mondays sucked.  
  


* * *

  
INT. VICTORIA'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

Victoria is alone.

VICTORIA (V.O.)

It had been three years since my father

Died… But suddenly it seemed like

yesterday. Why? I finally got the demon

who killed him. Now…

VICTORIA

What am I going to do with you?

Reveals AZAZEL, VICTORIA's prisoner.  
  


* * *

  
"Morning, Katara!" A bald head peeked over her cubicle wall.

"Aang!" she sighed in relief. She quickly closed out of the mostly blank page and turned to face him. "You seem to be in a good mood. What's new?"

"Guess who has two thumbs and just got his script approved: this guy!" he announced, a giant cheesy smile gracing his face.

"You're kidding! I thought Zuko everyone-should-be-as-miserable-as-me Sozin was just rejecting everyone's scripts this month. He shot down my latest rewrite and Haru hasn't had any luck either," she nodded to the cube in the far right corner of the office.

Aang shook his head, "I thought so too, but he approved it! A few minor corrections, but after that I'm good to go! So in honor of getting my script approved, I thought I'd treat you to a Starbucks! ...That is if you have the time," Aang's cheeks were stained light pink and he swirled his index finger around.

"Oh Aang, I thought you'd never ask!" Katara grabbed her purse and Aang's elbow as she tried to hurry him out the door before…

"Kannaku, where do you think you're going?"

Katara winced and slowly turned around to see her boss standing right behind her. He did not look pleased. The large scar over his left eye gave him a perma-glare, but right now both eyes matched.

"Oh… Zuko… I didn't know you were there. Aang and I were just headed out for coffee, would you like us to pick something up for you?" she asked, blinking her eyes in an attempt to look innocent. Aang nodded enthusiastically to back her up.

Zuko looked rather unconvinced. "How considerate of you Kannaku, but I know you have a lot of writing to do. I'm sure Yangchen will be happy to pick up a drink for you, won't you, Yangchen?" He shot Aang a look, daring the younger man to disagree with him.

"Of course, Katara… grande Caffè Mocha with whole milk, right?"

Before Katara could even nod, Zuko interrupted, "Make it a venti, she has a lot of work to do, and get me a coffee with a double shot." He handed Aang a card before escorting Katara back to her desk. She looked over her shoulder and Aang winced apologetically.

"Now, Kannaku, we both know that you have a lot of rewriting to do for me today, and I'd like to see where you are by noon. That's two hours from now," he clarified. "I need to see what direction you're going. Don't disappoint me again." He looked over at some of the decorations she had in her cubicle, hesitated, then left tugging at his hair and muttering under his breath.

Katara made a face as he strolled off. _'Sorry, but the decorations stay up. It's still my cube!'_ she taunted. She mentally taunted; she wasn't stupid enough to actually say that to her boss who was already not happy with her and probably looking for a way to fire her. Katara grumbled as she pulled back open Final Draft to work on her script. She hated it. Everything she was turning out now was crap. Deleting line after line didn't even have the same appeal as tearing up pages - that was probably why Zuko Sozin insisted on printing everything out, just so he could tear her a new one more efficiently.

By the time Aang returned, three drinks in hand, Katara was slumped over, pecking at her keyboard with one finger as she leaned against her other arm.

 

* * *

  
VICTORIA runs outside, looking around for the noise.

VICTORIA

You think I don't have what it takes!?

You'll regret doubting me! I'll show

you, Zuko! I'll xxxxxxxx  
  


* * *

 

Aang peered over Katara's shoulder. "Bad day, huh?" he asked, putting her coffee on her desk as she continued to tap out another row of x's.

"Hmm?" Katara looked up in surprise. "Oh, not that bad… just thinking of what nasty things I can do to Z… Azazel," she corrected herself. She took a deep swig of her coffee, "You have no idea how much I need this." She smiled in deep, deep gratitude. She didn't know how Aang knew exactly what she ordered, but she was so thankful he did. "You're a lifesaver!"

Aang beamed at the compliment. "Whose life, yours or Zuko's?" This got a real laugh from Katara as she admitted it was probably both, one way or another.

Although Aang lingered as long as possible, he kept glancing over to Zuko's office, making sure the head writer hadn't spotted him yet. "Shit, he saw me. I have to go give 'Prince Zuko' his coffee. Good luck, Katara!" Aang waved as he left Katara to her blank page. She sighed heavily, but turned back to it. It wasn't quite as bad after Aang's visit; at least now she had the drive to tackle it.

After an hour and a half of typing, Katara had a solid 7 pages of script, rough script mind you, but script nonetheless. As 11:52 rolled around Katara pounded out a quick email to Zuko, then leaned back, sucking down the end of her mocha. She peeked in the hole in the top and looked forlornly for even one more sip, but no luck. She sighed deeply, still not looking forward to her meeting with the head writer; God, Zuko was an asshole. Katara stretched a bit, taking a short break having accomplished her noon deadline. However, just as she was opening candy crush, Zuko replied.  
  


* * *

  
Kannaku-

Received your script. I will need at least three hours to review. Expect full annotations. Meet me in my office at 4:30 for review. Continue working on script until then. Do not be late.

Zuko Sozin

 

* * *

  
Katara groaned; so much for her break. She squirmed in her chair, trying to get comfortable again. He couldn't even give her ten minutes break. Speaking of breaks… It seemed like it was time for lunch. She sidled over to Aang's desk and gently encouraged him to knock off for a half an hour (maybe a tinsy bit more). He didn't take much convincing. Soon enough, Katara, Aang, and most of the other writers were out getting orange chicken. Zuko Sozin was definitely _not_ invited.

By the time lunch was over, Katara had technically been over her break time, but that was nothing new. As long as Zuko didn't see her, he would never know, and what he didn't know couldn't hurt him! If she was lucky, he would be gone for lunch himself and never know what time she got back, but of course that wasn't the case. He was in his office, eating cup-of-noodles; however, it looked like his eyes were glued to the monitor in front of him. If Katara could time it just right…

Even better! Zuko was looking at the papers in front of him, making a particularly grumpy face. Now was her chance! Katara made a mad dash past his office while the head writer was distracted. She was homefree! She glanced over her shoulder and sighed in relief at him still grimacing at the stack of script. She winced, realizing it was probably _her_ script that he was tearing to bits. Oh well, at least he wasn't aware of her lunch _hour_.

Then next three hours went by too quickly and with far too little script written. All of her earlier drive and passion had melted away into an afternoon slump and just _knowing_ that Zuko would hate everything made everything just that much harder. What was the point in making a good script when her boss would just call it terrible and make her rewrite everything anyway?

Before long, an email dinged, reminding her that it was now 4:32 and she should already be in Zuko's office. She groaned as she closed out the email; this was going to be a long meeting.

 

* * *

  
When Katara arrived in Zuko's office, he did not look pleased.

"Kannaku, have a seat," he said, gesturing to the chair in front of him. She sat down, shifting in an attempt to get comfortable. "So we're here again," Zuko sighed, looking off to the right.

After a beat Katara took the lead, "I was experimenting with Victoria's morality which is a new direction for the show. When you didn't like my last script, I took it in a new direction of Azazel directly tempting Victoria to-"

"No." Zuko held up his hand, cutting her off.

Katara's eyes flashed, "What's wrong with that? We haven't seen how far we can push Victoria and Azazel is a great choice for that tormentor! We even have a basis in mythology: he's been associated with the serpent!"

"No." Zuko insisted. Katara's eyebrow furrowed, but this time Zuko continued before Katara could start arguing. "Do you know why I asked for a rewrite for today and why I called you in here so soon?"

Katara paused, "Because you didn't like my script. You told me that much on Friday."

"With my notes," he added.

"With the notes," she agreed.

"Did you read my notes?"

"Yes." A beat passed. "For the most part." Another beat and a raised eyebrow. "Okay, I skimmed them! You happy?"

"Obviously not," Zuko replied. "If you had bothered to read the notes you would know why you're here." Katara scowled and Zuko flipped through the pages he had printed out. "My note from page two: 'Kannaka, I don't think this was quite as good as your script last week, but you could make this work. I'll let you decide. But your setting is terrible or nonexistent and I don't know which is worse. Do you really trust the morons in studio to get this right? They don't know the characters. I need you to write out the setting and actions in explicit detail. I made this exact same note last week. Why are you giving me a rewrite that doesn't address setting any more than last time?'" Zuko shot Katara a withering look. "Why did you give me a rewrite that didn't address any of my notes on setting?" he repeated.

Katara chewed her lip. "I thought that with all the notes you gave me, the plot was really lacking…"

"It was." Zuko flushed and corrected himself, "Well, not really _lacking_ , just unrefined. Which is normal because your script wasn't finished. It needed a solid week of polishing at least, but that's not the point." He shook his head, as if to clear his mind. "That's not the problem, the problem is your setting or lack thereof. I can't even begin to envision what's happening, how are the actors, set directors, costume designers, or directors supposed to know? They've never even met you! How are they supposed to know what you're thinking?"

"They're not! It's a collaboration; that's what Bumi always said. It's not supposed to be the writers imposing their will on actors and directors. That's why _he_ was such a great head writer!" Katara argued. It figured that Zuko was just trying to take control away from the other creatives at work!

"Excuse me? You work for me now, Kannaku. I have told you what I wanted and that's what I expect to get! I will not put up with this! I am your superior and I expect you act like it!" He slammed his knuckles against the table once. Zuko paused, eyes wide, licked his lips, and took a long swig from his mug of tea.

Katara glared at him. He was a bully: he only wanted to impose his own ideas on other people and when he couldn't get them under his thumb he got angry and violent. "I don't know why you expect me to be okay with this," she hissed.

Zuko scowled, tried another slug of tea, then pressed his lips together. "I don't expect you to be _'okay'_ with it," he stated. Katara began to interrupt him, but he continued, his volume increasing, "I expect you to do what I tell you because I'm your supervisor. You don't have to like it, you don't have to like _me_ , but you have to do it if you want this job." He banged his mug down on his desk and Katara started slightly.

After a moment Zuko continued in a normal voice, "I expect your rewritten script to be finished by Friday, with stage directions, actions, and further plot refinements." He passed her the seven pages he had revisions for. "This meeting is over. I suggest you get to work."

 

* * *

  
Katara stormed out of his office, eyes blazing and throat tight with anger. How dare he treat her like that! She was a valuable part of this team and he should respect that. She noticed that it was 5:15. Usually everyone would hang out in the office until 7 at least, but she was done. She needed to go home, take a load off, and cool down.

Aang noticed her foul mood. "Hey Katara, do you want to-"

"Leaving," she informed him. "We'll talk tomorrow."

She punched the power button of her computer, grabbed her bag and phone and hurried down to the garage. As soon as Katara was safe inside her car she pounded the steering wheel a few times with her palm before huddling over it in misery. She wiped at her eyes, glad that no one could see just how much Zuko Sozin got to her. This job was everything to her, now he was threatening to take it away. And all because she didn't agree with him and his dictatorial ways! It was almost 6 by the time she pulled out of the structure and headed home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So here we have the first full chapter! As a quick note, I am not a screenwriter in any way, shape, or form, so there are definitely going to be inaccuracies here. If you see some, please point them out in a review and I'll give you credit and change what I can change. (There may be certain plot related elements I have to keep, but if that's the case I'll happily explain what I'm wrong on and who pointed it out!)
> 
> I hope the last names I added were pretty clear in context. If you're curious:
> 
> Zuko Sozin - Just lifted the name from Sozin's Comet.
> 
> Katara (and Sokka) Kannaku - A combination name from Kanna and Pakku
> 
> Aang Yangchen - Just lifted from Avatar Yangchen
> 
> I'm not good at making up names and I wanted the names to fit the same sounds, hence stealing them from other (older) characters that were unlikely to make an appearance in this story.
> 
> Finally, let me know what you think! What do you like? What do you not like? If I have any errors, please let me know and I'll fix them (even typos!)
> 
> Edit: 10/12/16 - Fixed formatting on the script a bit! My copy and paste did not translate it well!


	3. Meat Man

Katara stormed into the apartment in a sour mood. Her brother jerked in surprise at her sudden appearance, knocking over the bag of cheetos he had cradled on his lap. "Katara? What are you doing back? Is it 8:30 already?! Shiiiit! I had a deadline and I thought I still had…"

Katara held up her hands to stop Sokka's inevitable panic. "You're not late," ' _yet'_ she added mentally, "I'm home early and my boss is a raging jackass."

Sokka shrugged, "What else is new? He was a jackass on Friday, he was a jackass the day before that, and the day before that. Odds are he'll even be a jackass tomorrow too!"

Katara pursed her lips and glared at her brother.

"Remember, you just work for the guy, you don't have to marry him. So he's an asshole, put up with him during the day then make a voodoo doll so you can stick pins in his ass at night, or we could put his picture up on a dartboard! I've always wanted a dart board…"

"No dartboards," Katara reminded him, "I'm not losing my deposit on this place just because you have terrible aim." Sokka opened his mouth to argue but Katara didn't give him the chance to interject, "I don't care how much you've been practicing, it's not going to mean a thing after a few beers or need I remind you of the ' _cactus juice'_ incident?" Sokka quickly shifted strategies from debating to pouting. Katara groaned, "Speaking of beer, I could really use a cold one." She opened the fridge and stared mindlessly into it.

"Sorry, sis, you know the rules: you _imbibe_ it, you _supply_ it!" Sokka reminded her, gloating at his own wit. Katara groaned as he tried out different variations, trying to perfect the phrasing. "You shot it, you bought it? Nah, it was beer, not shots… You swill it, you fill it?"

'Witty' catchphrases aside, Sokka did have a point: she drank the beer, she didn't buy any replacements, and now there wasn't any beer left. Katara collapsed onto the couch with a groan and threw an arm over her eyes. Sokka hovered around her for a minute. "...So you're not going to make a beer run?"

"No, I am not going to run out and get you beer, Sokka. I had a shitty day at work and it's only Monday." Katara glared at him. "Don't you have a 'deadline'?" she accused as she watched him try to retrieve his fallen cheetos.

Sokka jerked up, spilling additional cheetos in the process. "Shit! You're right!" He abandoned his bag of snacks on the couch as he made a mad dash for his computer.

Her brother's panic drew Katara out of her funk a little bit. She trailed after him to see what was going on. "What's happening?"

"White Lotus is having open submissions! This is my chance to actually get my comics published!"

Katara eyed him skeptically. "Why would _anyone_ want to publish _Meat Man_?"

"Because…" Sokka typed frantically, "he's one of the top superhero webcomics! White Lotus goes for the independent, offbeat stuff! Not like BSS and Omashu. Neither of them would look twice at me, but White Lotus? I'm right up their alley!"

Katara gave Sokka a bit of a skeptical look, but left him to his submission. He assured her that he would take her up on her offer to proofread, but there probably wasn't going to be time for that.  
  


* * *

  
At 8:29 Sokka swaggered into the room. "Got my application in with…" he looked at his watch, "37 seconds to spare! I am _the_ best!" Katara rolled her eyes. She had started looking into this open submission period and noticed that it had been over a month long.

"And what did you do with the other 29 days it was open?"

"Preparing myself! I had to put my best foot forward after all!" Katara wanted to snark about whether that included a hasty cover letter with no proofreading, but let it slide.

"And what exactly is your best foot?"

"Glad you asked!" Sokka bustled into his room and dragged out a large portfolio. Katara raised an eyebrow and opened the unfamiliar folder: inside were pages and pages of drawings. She flipped through the stack and there were easily 50 full comic pages in various states of completion.

"These are phenomenal!" She trailed her fingers over a more finished panel showing a bendy, stylized superhero fighting crime. "These… aren't _Meat Man_." Katara happily proofread the webcomic's dialogues and gave writing tips and this was all new.

"Nope, meet _The Boomerang!_ " Sokka announced, posing dramatically. Katara looked up at him, not sure of what to make of the new character and name. " _The Boomerang_ is the new comic I'm pitching! He's a badass superhero with a sense of humor! Think Batman meets Deadpool with a dash of Conan!" Katara nodded; she at least had some notion of what that meant. "Now add in an indie comic, stylized drawing style and you have _The Boomerang!_ "

"So you didn't submit any _Meat Man_?"

"Of course not! Isn't it obvious?" Katara shook her head. "If they wanted _Meat Man_ they would have gotten _Meat Man_. It's been online for almost ten years now. Someone, somewhere at White Lotus, had to know about it—probably a lot of them really—and none of them ever felt the need to contact me about it. Because they didn't want _Meat Man_ I knew I had to make a new property and thus _The Boomerang_ was born! He takes all the humor of _Meat Man_ and meshes it with jaw-dropping, heart-racing action!" Sokka posed a few more times to emphasize just how exciting the comic was.

Katara shook her head and smiled, "Okay Sokka, you win. You _are_ a genius!" She gave him a giant bear hug. For just a little while it helped to remember that even though she had had a rough day, her brother was out there making waves.

One celebratory beer run later, Sokka was slouched on the couch sucking down his third beer when he finally remembered Katara's earlier, foul mood. "So what happened with Zuko today? I'm assuming he's the cause of all this."

Katara sighed and put down her half-finished bottle (only one, she did have work in the morning). "He's still giving me grief over nothing! Over the way I write my settings and action! As if that even matters. We have set designers and actors for a reason, you know!" She gestured wildly before nursing her beer a little more. "It was never like this under Bumi: he was crazy, but he got things done! If Zuko had been head writer back when I was interning for _Grimoire_ , I never would have stayed. I never would have even tried anything new because I would have been too afraid of getting even a hair out of line! It's terrible!"

Sokka shrugged, "Bosses are the worst. It's why I don't have one!" Katara was very tempted to point out that not having one was also the reason why she paid all the rent, but decided to let it slide for the evening. She didn't want to rag on him when he had just completed a month long project. "Anyway, I know what will make you feel better!" Katara cocked her head. "Draw him!"

"Sokka, I can't draw."

"Doesn't matter, draw him anyway!" Sokka insisted, handing her a pencil and paper.

Katara gave him an odd look, but began, "Well, let's see... tall, dark hair-"

Sokka frantically shook his head and waved his arms. "Not like that. Don't try to draw a portrait; you're not going to be good at it anyway." Katara glared at him. "Don't think about what he looks like, draw how you think of him."

This got a more critical look from Katara and a deep swig of beer. "Hmm… Well, he thinks he's better than everyone else, hypercritical. Aang and I call him 'Prince Zuko' sometimes because he's an annoying prick that needs to have everything his own way and god forbid you disagree."

"Good! Draw him leaning over or looking down at someone. Don't worry about making it look like him, just make it _feel_ like him." Katara scribbled an ugly stick figure yelling pounding a fist on the table.

"How do I make him look more like a holier-than-thou asshole?"

"Easy! Raise the lip in a sneer like this…" Sokka sketched over her lines, "And make his shapes close together like he doesn't want to touch any of the riffraff."

"Better?"

"Yep! Now draw him looking off to the side, that'll make him look self-involved. Good!"

"But it doesn't look like _Zuko_ yet," Katara complained.

Sokka shook his head. "Don't worry," he said, "Now that we have the basic attitude we'll add the features that make him look like the royal douchebag we all know and love!"

Katara scribbled on some dark messy hair and shaded in the left side of his face. Then she gave him a little more of a scowl and giggled. "Sokka, you are a genius!"

 

* * *

  
The next day was not as terrible as she had thought it would be. When she arrived that morning there as an email waiting for her:

 

* * *

  
Katara,

Although our meeting today did not go well, I stand by my previous notes. We'll meet again Wednesday afternoon. I'm looking forward to your rewrite with sufficient actions and settings. Have a good night.

Zuko Sozin  
  


* * *

 

Katara rolled her eyes at the 'helpful' reminder. It was only then that she noticed Aang cautiously approaching her cubicle. He waved guiltily. "Feeling any better today?"

"Much," Katara said with a very grateful smile as she started to doodle on a sticky note.

"Well, I'm glad," Aang remarked. He twisted his foot around a little bit. "Just in case, I did get you something to perk you up." Katara looked up in surprise.

"Really? What?"

"Just a little something really," Aang said as he pulled out a little, bobble-headed creature from behind his back. "A little buddy to keep you company!"

Katara beamed. "Aang! He's adorable! Is he a bat?"

"Bat-lemur, but close enough. Tell me, Mr. Lemur, do you think Katara's script is as good as I do?" Aang asked the toy, then pushed the lemur's head down so he nodded his agreement. Katara giggled.

"Aang, I love him! Thank you. That was so sweet!" She put a hand on Aang's arm and his cheeks colored. Katara looked around conspiratorially, then whispered to him, "Come back later. My brother had a great way to deal with 'Prince Zuko.'" She grinned wickedly and snuck a quick peek at her doodle.

Aang chuckled nervously, a deeper tint to his cheeks. "Will do. Unfortunately, I have to go see his highness right now."

"I thought your script was approved!"

"It was," Aang sighed, "I don't know what he wants, but he sent me an email last night about meeting with him for a few hours this morning. Afterwards want to grab lunch with me?"

"Chipotle?" suggested Katara.

"Sounds perfect! See you before too long."

Katara smiled as she returned to Final Draft to work on her episode from last week: it was _way_ better than the abomination she had forced out yesterday. Now she just had to go back and add all the _unnecessary_ settings.  
  


* * *

  
INT. VICTORIA'S ROOM - NIGHT

VICTORIA confronts a restrained AZAZEL in her room. The only light comes from her lamp.

She holds a flask of holy water.

VICTORIA

I'm ready for you. I know you

think you're hot shit, but you're

not.

AZAZEL

You think you're going to

achieve anything here? What

do you have to offer?

Nothing. Now be a good little

girl and do as you're told.

VICTORIA splashes AZAZEL with the holy water.

VICTORIA

What does it say about you?

You're the one who got

captured by a 'little girl.'

AZAZEL

I will make you regret this.

You should have listened to

me when you had the chance.

AZAZEL's eyes turn black as he attempts a spell. VICTORIA cuts him off with another splash of holy water.  
  


* * *

  
It took several hours for Katara to get through the first few scenes. Zuko's notes detailed exactly what he wanted in terms of setting (along with _everything_ else he could possibly think of), but Katara wasn't about to roll over that easily. Instead, she went to great care to convey what he had asked for, but not exactly in the way he wanted. She firmly believed in the creatives in studio and wanted to give them as much freedom as she could; the problem was getting Zuko to approve that. She rather suspected "Describe room: use it to tell Victoria's story and habits" meant "Describe every piece of junk Victoria owns in extreme detail." Well, if Zuko wanted everything that specific, that's what his notes should have said. She nearly cackled at the thought. _'Oh, Zuko! This isn't what you wanted? Perhaps you should have been more specific rather than letting me interpret everything the way I saw fit. Hahahaha!'_

It was nearly two when Aang made his way back to her cubicle. "Sorry, Katara, my meeting ran later than expected," he said in way of explanation.

"Sure thing… Jeez! What did he do to you? You look terrible! Err, no offense."

Aang waved his hand. "Just an intense meeting. Because I finished my script early, Zuko wanted me to do some additional work for him…" Aang looked down as he straightened his shirt cuff a little, "You still up for some Chipotle?" He asked, tilting his head hopefully. "I was looking forward to it the whole time."

"You know it! I'm sure you need a break after three hours with 'Prince Zuko' anyway!" Katara tossed her bag over her shoulder.

Aang smiled and escorted her out of the office, relief radiating off of him.

 

* * *

  
After a leisurely lunch they headed back to work.

"You know, it's unfair of Zuko to assign you extra work just because you managed to finished your script early," Katara complained as they walked through the door. "You should really just be allowed to take the time to research exactly what you want to do next season or get some story editing credit or something!"

Aang shrugged, "I know, but it's not all bad. Besides, I _have_ to listen to his highness, you know! I for one am glad to have full time work."

That's when Katara's eyes lit up. "Sokka! I never showed you what Sokka showed me!" She grabbed Aang's arm and dragged him over to her desk. "My brother was feeling bad for me for having such a terrible boss, so he taught me a… stress relieving technique?" she said, not entirely happy with the phrasing, "Anyway, watch this!"

Katara started sketching out the figure and within a few minutes she had drawn a cartoony monster on her post-it note pad. She giggled and scribbled in some messy hair and shaded in his left side. On further inspection Katara decided to give him a top hat and fangs in his open mouth. "I give you Pa _zuzu_!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise Zuko-Katara interaction in the next chapter, but I always enjoy having a good set-up.
> 
> We finally get the introduction of Pazuzu! I decided on Pazuzu because it's so much more fun to get "Zuzu" in the story somewhere! As you may have guessed from the summary, Pazuzu is not going anywhere, but we'll have to wait and see what happens next.
> 
> For the record: BSS and Omashu are this world's equivalents to DC and Marvel respectively. White Lotus is more or less Dark Horse. I'm hoping it was relatively clear from the context.
> 
> Lastly I hope everyone enjoyed Sokka. One of my favorite aspects of the show is that although Sokka is a non-bender he was equally respected and had his own skills. In this universe with no bending I had to figure out how to keep that aspect of Sokka being useful. It seemed perfect to me that Sokka would be an indie artist with good insight into the market. To put it another way: Katara, Aang, and Zuko are all working nice full time jobs on someone else's show, but Sokka is the only one of the three out there doing 100% his own thing. ...Sokka may be a bit of a mad genius too.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed! As always, I love hearing comments so let me know what you think! If I got anything wrong (even a typo) please let me know and I'll fix it asap! I can't tell you how much I wanted to name this chapter "Meat Man and Boomerang Boy," but I thought the Spongebob reference might be a little too silly.


	4. Lunch Meeting

Katara,

Would you be able to meet with me for an early lunch tomorrow? I have a call until 11:45. Please meet me at 12, sharp. We will go through your script together then.

Zuko Sozin  


* * *

  
Katara groaned. Of course Zuko would change his mind and take over her lunch with Aang! She sighed and blew a strand of hair out her eyes. She was not looking forward to telling her lunch buddy he'd be on his own tomorrow. The worst part was that she _knew_ that Aang always looked forward to their time together and now she had to cancel on him. She briefly wondered if Zuko did that on purpose.

Pouting, she wrote 'lunch meeting' on a post-it and started sketching out another little Pazuzu below it. Although she tried to keep a straight face, Katara soon broke into a smile. There was just something amusing about the tiny, vampire-creature Zuko sucking her blood as she tried to reach a cheeseburger. She added a long ponytail and drew a thin scar going through the vampire's left eye, before sticking the "reminder" on her monitor. It couldn't be _too_ obvious if she wanted to display it— and she did want to display it— so she had _abstracted_ Zuko's features a little.

By the end of that night, all of Katara's scenes were nearly done to _her_ specifications. She emailed Zuko her work-in-progress script, adding that she had included more descriptions. She hoped that things would go smoothly tomorrow, but she was sure her head writer wouldn't happy with her sparse settings. Still, she felt the moral obligation to try to reach a happy middle ground rather that going straight to the overly-detailed tripe he wanted.

 

* * *

  
As Katara gathered her papers, she looked towards Aang and sighed. She waved, a forced smile on her face as she turned to go into Zuko's office. She knew the head writer was a stickler for punctuality, so at 12:01 she knocked and walked in.

"—n't care, I _have_ to do this!"

Zuko was on a phone call. By the flush on his pale skin and the veins throbbing in his neck, things were not going well.

"I _told_ you that I can manage! I'll take care of everything!" he insisted.

Zuko grimaced as he listened to the person on the other line. Katara stared awkwardly, unsure of whether she could scuttle off before he saw her. On the other hand, she was curious about what he was talking about, and besides, it served him right to be embarrassed! _He_ was late for their meeting. Katara didn't even want to go into exactly how satisfying it was to see Zuko getting chewed out by his boss.

"That's all great, but I really don't have a choice in the matter! You think I want to do this _now_? That it's _my_ choice? You think I don't know when the off-season starts?"

Zuko spotted Katara and that only appeared to make things worse. "Look, I have to go. I have a meeting."

He listened for a minute, a deep frown etched into his features.

"I did schedule it around our call! You kept me on hold for _twenty_ minutes, _and_ I originally had a fifteen minute gap before she arrived!"

Zuko scowled.

"Okay, fine. We'll talk later. Goodbye." He hung up before the person on the other line could get another word in. He dropped his head into his hands for a minute and tugged his fingers through his hair. Zuko sighed heavily and looked away to compose himself a little.

"That wasn't for you to hear, Kannaku," he said gruffly.

Ah. There he was: Zuko the asshole. And Katara had actually been concerned for a moment there. She pursed her lips and plunked herself into the chair on the other side of his desk. So he was going to play it _that_ way. Well, Katara wasn't going to make it easy for him.

"It's 12:06. I knew I had to be here at noon on the dot, so I had assumed you'd be ready by now." Katara's eyes flicked up and down as she looked over his somewhat harried appearance.

Zuko cleared his throat and fidgeted with his tie. "I am. That was a producer," he said, trying to justify himself. "She was making sure that this season's scripts would be ready in time. I trust that you've done your part." He arched his single eyebrow, daring her to contradict him. "Show me what you've got."

 

* * *

  
"'VICTORIA confronts a restrained AZAZEL in her room. The only light comes from her lamp.' Restrained how? Rope, duct tape, jump rope... _S &M equipment?_" At Katara's silence Zuko made a frustrated gesture. "This isn't a rhetorical question! You need this degree of planning in your scene."

Katara glared at him. "Well, if you knew the show, you'd remember that Victoria let go of her 'normal' life in seasons two and three, so she wouldn't have a jump rope anymore. Azazel is way too physically strong to be restrained by duct tape and Victoria is more of a planner than that." Katara didn't dignify the 'S&M equipment' with a response. "She'd use rope, but also she'd need a sigil to keep him _there_ and not in a different realm." She managed to resist adding _'duh_ ,' to the end of her explanation; she wasn't able to avoid the eyeroll.

"Then why isn't that in the script!? You think that they're going to get that right in the studio!?"

"Of course they will! They've worked on the show long enough. They know the sigils better than I do!"

"But do they know when to use one?" Zuko demanded.

'Yes' was the obvious answer and the answer most likely to get her the boot. Instead she glowered.

Zuko was still on perma-glare, but he started to look uncomfortable when Katara refused to answer. He looked away, glancing at his desktop. "Look, it's after one. We're both hungry, so we should eat. What do you want from Arirang?" Katara looked back at him stupidly; she had never heard of that place. "Korean," he said in way of explanation. Well, Katara didn't normally have Korean. To be more precise, Katara had never had Korean, but she wasn't exactly sure how say that without looking like a complete hick.

"What do you get?" she asked, trying to play off her ignorance as just unfamiliarity with the restaurant.

"Usually Bibimbap or Hot Pot," he said causally.

Shit. That didn't help at all. She cursed her tiny hometown and its _only_ Asian restaurant: she'd never heard of either of those dishes.

"I'll go with the Bibimbap," she announced. Hot pot sounded scary: she didn't like spicy food. While she had expanded her palette since leaving her Podunk hometown to work on Grimoire, she still needed milk and plenty of sour cream on hand whenever she had Mexican.

Zuko nodded and placed the order with a few clicks. "It'll be here in twenty." Satisfied, he leaned back in his chair and wiggled it back and forth a little. "You and Aang haven't been to Arirang?"

"No, I'm not familiar with them."

"They're good." He nodded, a bit of a pleased expression on his face. "All their food is great, at least everything I've ever had." It figured: _Prince Zuko_ was trying to one up her lunches with Aang. He sipped his tea, trying to hide his self-satisfied expression.

"How much do I owe you?"

The head writer waved his hand. "This is a working lunch so Ember Island Productions is picking up the tab."

Katara smiled at Zuko for that; even she couldn't complain about the company picking up the tab.

Zuko shifted around nervously in his seat. "Well, because it's a working lunch, we should get back to your work…" He pressed his lips together, gathering his thoughts. Katara sipped her water as she waited. "What do you think about adding romance to it? For Victoria," he clarified, a tinge of red creeping across his cheeks.

Katara slapped a hand to her mouth to stop herself from spitting out her mouthful of water. She swallowed painfully and coughed. "Excuse me?" she croaked.

"A romance plot. Between her and... Azazel maybe? It could be an interesting angle and that aspect of Victoria's character we haven't explored since seasons one and two..."

Katara was simply floored. "No! That's a terrible idea! The whole point is that Victoria is independent and can take care of herself. The last thing I'm going to do is have her crushing on some jerk and following him around like a lovesick puppy!"

Zuko flushed. "I–It… doesn't have to be like that! _He_ could… have feelings for her."

"No! He's a self-absorbed asshole!" She grimaced, nose wrinkling and lip curling back in revulsion. "She'd never be happy with him."

Zuko shifted around again. "Nevermind. Bad idea. It would never work." He rolled his chair back. "I'll be back soon. I uh— restroom. While we wait for the food," he explained as he quickly exited the room.

Katara rolled her eyes in disgust. And Zuko called himself a _writer_. Ha! It would make her laugh if it wasn't so pathetic. Clearly, he didn't understand Victoria at all; all the more reason why she shouldn't listen to his notes. They just felt wrong: the actors could determine the emotion, the set designers could stage the lighting, and the costume designer could choose the costume. That's how it worked. ...But the way writing worked is that she had to get the head writer to approve her script, therefore she'd have to follow Zuko's notes sooner rather than later. She sighed heavily and looked for any desk toys in his generally sparse office. Not finding any, she settled for drawing Pazuzu. She didn't add his hair or scar this time: she wasn't stupid enough to draw a recognizable caricature of her boss while sitting in his office.

Before long, Zuko returned, apologizing for his absence. He straightened some papers on his already tidy desk. He looked at Katara like he wanted her to say something so she didn't. He was responsible for this meeting so it was his job to carry it.

"So how about them…" Zuko trailed off, trying to think of a sports team that was currently playing.

"Do you watch sports?"

"Not really," he winced a little at the admission.

"Then don't bother."

After a few more minutes of awkward silence, a phone vibrated. Zuko instantly perked up. "That's mine," he announced, glad for the interruption. "Food's downstairs. I'll be back in a minute." He practically ran out of the office, phone in hand.

 

* * *

  
Ten minutes later, Zuko returned with the takeout. "Bibimbap for you and hot pot for me." He smiled a little too widely and it looked strained.

Katara popped open her container and smiled; it looked good. She snagged some sprouts and rice with her chopsticks and popped it into her mouth.

Zuko shook his head and twirled his finger in a circle. "Stir it," he said, as soon as he had swallowed, "You're supposed to mix up the flavors."

Katara gave him a puzzled look, but stirred it anyway. She took another bite and her eyes widened. Fuck! Hot! There was spicy sauce in it and now it was on _everything!_ She dug frantically for any bit of untainted rice, but only managed to mix it more.

"Pretty good right?" Katara glared at him, eyes watering, as she grabbed her water and chugged some.

"It's hot!" she shouted accusingly.

Zuko blinked at her. "It's bibimbap. Of course it's hot."

Katara gaped at him dumbly, then furrowed her brow. "When it's this spicy you should tell someone."

Zuko looked abashed. "I thought you liked spicy food too," he muttered, "Why would you order bibimbap when you don't like spicy food?" Katara glared at him. Not helping, Zuko. He combed his hand through his hair, then pressed his lips together for a moment, "My food is pretty terrible too." Katara shot him a dirty look; he licked his lips nervously. "Hot pot broth usually has a kick to it, but this beef bulgogi one…" He picked up a spoonful and let the soup dribble back into the container. "It's bland."

Katara stared at him blankly: her food was inedible and here was this asshole complaining his was _bland._ Zuko stared back and chewed his lip a little. "You should eat it," he said, shoving his container towards her. "It would be a shame to let it go to waste." He looked down at her hand, his cheeks a bit flushed.

Katara hesitated. She didn't really want her boss's rejects, but she was hungry… she couldn't help but stare at it, trying to determine if this was some sort of ruse.

Zuko looked between her and the hot pot a few times, then over towards her bibimbap. He quickly closed it up and scooped up the offending dish. "I'll just dispose of this in the kitchen for you," he said, motioning in the direction he was heading before fleeing the room.

Katara waited, eyeing the dirty spoon. She was hungry, but it was his food. She grabbed a napkin and wiped the spoon, trying to figure out whether or not she was actually going to eat his leftovers. She peered out; Zuko was nowhere to be seen. She dipped the spoon in the stew, looked around nervously, then took a sip.

Her eyes fluttered shut in contentment, as she enjoyed the savory broth. Katara sighed in deep satisfaction. She was so hungry! As soon as she was convinced that it wasn't loaded with chili, Katara dug in. Engrossed in her lunch, she didn't notice Zuko return until he stepped into the office. She stopped eating immediately, looking like a deer in the headlights. He had caught her and the hot pot was nearly gone.

"You can keep eating. I wasn't hungry anyway." He grabbed a napkin and wiped his lips and hands clean. "I should have warned you that the bibimbap had chili sauce." His cheeks were still flushed and he ran his napkin over the corners of his mouth. "Go ahead and finish the hot pot. You'll need the energy for when we go through your script."

Katara closed the lid and put it aside. She lost her appetite when Zuko was there watching her eat his leftovers. Zuko watched her, his single eyebrow raised and a slight frown on his face.

"Anyway, the script needs work," he said, arranging papers on his desk and suddenly looking anywhere but at Katara. He hesitated and then looked her in the eye, "I'm not trying to be a jerk, I'm trying to get your script where it needs to be. You _need_ the descriptions. Your job is to write out the descriptions exactly the way I tell you to. We're going to go through the first few scenes and get exactly the right level of detail."

Katara glanced away and folded her arms. So he only brought her in here to babysit her. She was an adult and could handle it herself.

Zuko paused. "Ka... Kannaku," he licked his lips, "This is the only way." He swallowed heavily. "I'm not doing this to be mean to you; I'm doing this because it's necessary."

The looked at each other for a moment before Zuko cleared his throat. "Anyway, so in this scene you said Victoria would be using new rope and a sigil, let's put that in." He grabbed a clean copy of her script and wrote that in with his red pen. "Now let's talk about this lamp… floor lamp, desk lamp, lamp on her nightstand?"

Katara rolled her eyes. "I don't know. Whatever she has in her room."

"Right, well I guess we'll have to look at the old footage and figure that out." He started clicking around on his computer. "I think we see her room in 'Nightmares and Daydreams,' the scene where she jerks awake after the drowning dream… Ah here it is!" Zuko turned his monitor around.

They watched as Victoria sat up in bed and turned on a lamp on her bedside table, but there was a medusa lamp in the background. Later, Victoria made the decision that she would stay up all night and the scene crossfaded to her falling asleep while studying by desk lamp. Well, shit. That was three already.

"So which one?"

Katara winced. "I'm not sure," she admitted.

Zuko hesitated. "Well, let's think about it for a moment… Do you want to feel more like a bedroom or more like an interrogation?"

"An interrogation."

"Then the bedside lamp is out: it'll be too soft. Is she actively blinding him with it or letting him stew?"

"She's not torturing him, not yet anyway."

"Then medusa head. The desk lamp will end up in his eyes." Zuko scribbled that note on his copy. "So then Victoria says, 'I'm ready for you. I know you think you're hot shit, but you're not.' Is she convincing herself or is she confident?"

Katara's brow furrowed. "I'm not sure."

"That's fine, we'll come back to it." He grabbed a highlighter and scrubbed it over that text.

"So Azazel says 'You think you're going to achieve anything here? What do you have to offer? Nothing. Now be a good little girl and do as you're told.' I think that's pretty straightforward and doesn't need any notes." He looked up and Katara nodded. "Then Victoria splashes him with holy water. Okay, _there_ we need more notes. It's in a flask?" Katara nodded again and Zuko wrote that in. "Is it a just a little sprinkle or does she dump the bottle?"

"A good amount." Zuko noted that.

"And does she do it as part of interrogation, or is she losing her temper?"

"Definitely losing it, but it's not like it wouldn't have been part of the interrogation…"

"Victoria angrily splashes Azazel with a good amount of holy water. The flask is still mostly full," Zuko dictated as he wrote in the corrections.

"So how does she say 'What does it say about you? You're the one who got captured by a little girl'? Is she in control?"

"More in control than when she splashed him. Still pissed off."

"Bitingly?" he suggested.

"Yeah, sounds good." Zuko added that to the script, and if Katara looked closely she would have noticed one corner of his mouth tugging up in a tiny half-smile.

 

* * *

  
Some three hours later they had made it through three scenes.

Katara was practically slumped over Zuko's desk.

"Well, I think that just about covers that," he announced gathering the papers that had gotten strewn over his desk over the course of their meeting. "Of course, you'll still need to go back to add in the notes, revise again, and finish adding setting to all the scenes we haven't done so far." Considering they had done three, that only left around… _28_. "I expect to have them done by 2 o'clock on Friday, so I can have them back to you by Monday morning. You know what I'm looking for. I trust you'll meet my expectations, Kannaku."

Katara sighed as she started gathering up her stuff. It was going to be a long few days, and she looked just as miserable as she felt.

"Oh, um… Katara? Before you go…" She hesitated at the door and looked back at Zuko as he stood to look her in the eye. "If you need additional advice or assistance, I will be available during my lunch tomorrow and Friday, and I'm happy to assist you." He looked at her expectantly.

"I'll think about it." Katara really didn't know how long her rewrite would take and didn't particularly want a repeat of this disaster of an afternoon. "I should be able to handle it myself," she added. As she left the office she heard Zuko collapse into his chair and sigh. Apparently the meeting was just as rough on him as it was on her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha, so Katara's lunch in this chapter is based vaguely on my own experiences. I was very bad at finding not-spicy Korean food. I also put Katara/the Water Tribe somewhere cold and boring (e.g. Wisconsin, Minnesota… etc.). I'd think that Zuko/the Fire Nation would be from somewhere warmer and more urban/metropolitan, like California/Los Angeles. The writers are probably located in a Vancouver analog. In show universe, probably a colony. Would you prefer in show names or real world names or just keep it vague?
> 
> Also, probably Zuko's actions here would be a little inappropriate, but it's fiction. I'll take a few liberties when I need to. As usual, if there's anything wrong (even typos) let me know and I'll fix them and give you credit! The next chapter may take a while, I have a bunch of other things that need doing. Please let me know what you think! :)

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing in ages, and really just something I'm picking up between art blocks. Please let me know if you enjoyed it and I'll see about writing chapter 2 before too long. If you see any errors, please let me know. I've read it through a few times, but I'm sure I've missed a thing or two.


End file.
